Canal breach blocks boats as engineers assess leak

A section of canal in Cheshire is blocked after a breach caused water to pour into a neighbouring field.

Engineers are investigating the cause of the leak on the Llangollen Canal, near bridge 10 at Swanley, close to Nantwich.

Although water levels have since been restored, the Canal and Rivers Trust said the canal and towpath would remain shut while its teams assessed the damage, adding that temporary dams were in place, with repairs expected to take several days.

The organisation said it was too early to say for certain what had caused the breach, but it suspected a culvert failure.

"The affected section of canal has been secured and water levels have recovered overnight," the trust said.

"Hurleston Reservoir continues to operate as normal and is supplying water to the canal. We're working closely with our partners to manage the situation and reduce any impact on local water supplies and boaters.

Paul Partridge, who runs Baked on Board, selling pizza on the canal, said he had to move to another location following the closure.

He had been due to trade at Swanley Bridge on Friday before heading to Wrenbury for the weekend, but instead relocated to Nantwich.

"I'm not going to do the numbers that I would do at Wrenbury, because Wrenbury's probably one of my best locations," he said.

"I can be up there on a Saturday night and sell 60 to 90 pizzas in an evening and I'll be very surprised if that happens in Nantwich."

Partridge said he had been told a culvert between bridges 9 and 10 had given way after a tree above it fell in recent days.

"It's just one of those things. Stuff happens and what you learn, particularly living and working on the canal, is that you just have to adapt," he said.

Boater and YouTube creator Josh Taylor travelled to the scene after receiving a message about the breach. When he arrived, he saw that several fields had been flooded.

"The response from the CRT was pretty good," he said.

However, he called on the government to increase funding for the Canal and Rivers Trust to better care for the aging network of 2,000 miles of canals.

His mother Diane added: "It's our heritage, our history, and when we live aboard them it's just lovely."

But Taylor said that with the frequency of waterway closures appearing to increase each year, life on the canal was becoming "nothing but stress".

Harry Fildes, manager of Swanley Bridge Marina, said staff had been "inundated" with calls from concerned boaters after news of the breach spread.

"There was a culvert that collapsed probably a mile or so from here," he said.

"CRT have acted very quickly and our water levels have stayed fairly stable. We were keeping a close eye yesterday."

Fildes said the marina had already seen fewer visiting boats following a breach at Whitchurch in December, and the latest closure was adding to the disruption.

"Typically this would be busy on a day like today but it's further compounding that, so it's impacting us as a business," he said.

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